The Center for Media, Culture and History at NYU presents Fruits of Labor, an award-winning documentary by Emily Cohen Ibañez. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Film Director, Emily Cohen Ibañez, Diana Taylor,(NYU Spanish and Portuguese & Performance Studies.) and Josefina OSEFINA Saldaña-Portillo (NYU Social & Cultural Analysis).
Co-Sponsored by CLACS, Tisch. Cinema Studies, and the Department of Social & Cultural Analysis at NYU
About the film:
Award-winning documentary Fruits of Labor features a Mexican-American teen who dreams of graduating high school amidst increased ICE raids, threatening to separate her family. Forced to become the breadwinner, she works long days in the strawberry fields of central California’s coast and night shifts at a food processing factory.
About the Director:
Emily Cohen Ibañez is a Latinx filmmaker based in Oakland who earned her doctorate in Anthropology (2011) with a certificate in Culture and Media at New York University. Her film work pairs lyricism with social activism, advocating for labor, environmental, and health justice. She has become known for her collaborative methods that challenge the colonial heritage of documentary filmmaking. With parents who migrated from Colombia to the United States and a family legacy of escaping violence from Aleppo, Syria, Emily knows what it means to cross borders and fashion new identities. Her documentary BODIES AT WAR/MINA (2015) premiered at El Festival de Cine de Bogotá and screened in 22 municipalities most affected by landmines in Colombia. Her short films reach wide audiences internationally through The Guardian, The Intercept, and Independent Lens. Emily is a recipient of JustFilms Ford Foundation, Firelight Media Doc Lab, Sundance Kendeda, the National Science Foundation, and was a Fulbright scholar. Her feature documentary, FRUITS OF LABOR had its World Premiere at SXSW 2021, winning multiple awards on the festival circuit and will have its US broadcast on PBS POV| American Documentary.